MISSION I love a massage, me. But scoffing in a spa? No thanks. Or that’s how I used to think when I was dragged away by my mates for a detoxing weekend of carrot juice and celery salads. Things have changed. You can have your massage, and you can have your cake, too.

The food offering in spas is taking a different turn. It’s all about pampering these days: dishes, and treatments, to satisfy your every gustatory wish. Yup, you can be slathered in chocolate in the name of beauty and indulge in truffle therapy (you start with the chocolate kind and end with a face serum laced with the highly prized tuber).

So it was with a good deal of anticipation (and salivation) that I swung into the long driveway, lined with umbrella pine and cypress trees, of L’Andana, a gourmet spa in southern Tuscany. It was created by the French chef Alain Ducasse, who, on the basis of Michelin star tallies, ranks No 1 in the world.

USP Each spa treatment is matched to a particular tart, mousse or cake and a cup of customised herbal tea. As well as more than 27 restaurants, hotels and cooking schools, from Paris to Las Vegas, Ducasse also owns bakeries. So, for his first gourmet spa, he worked with his pastry chef and the British spa expert Espa, to devise which food works best with each treatment. The Life-saving Back Massage, for example, is followed by a dark-chocolate mousse; and those who opt for an Intense Facial might get a soya milk pannacotta and seasonal fruits, plucked from the hotel’s gardens.

What would I get after the Mini Ritual, a combined wrap-and-massage treatment? My therapist, Laura, asked how I was feeling on a score of one to ten. “Five,” I replied, a tad grumpily, sniffing the remnants of a heavy cold. The tea tree and eucalyptus oils that she worked into the treatment did their best to see off said cold, while the lavender tart (crisp buttery pastry filled with toasted almonds and lavender flowers) munched by the pool afterwards raised my spirits further.

Maurizio Romani, L’An-dana’s genial general manager, admitted to me later that there aren’t many takers for the light, healthy lunch offered to spa-goers, with most preferring to enjoy cake by the pool. “You don’t come here to lose weight; it’s about spoiling yourself, destressing,” he said, with a grin. And there’s definitely no holding back at dinner. A “traditional Grosseto crostino” (chopped pan-fried veal liver, pork fat and herbs, served on toasted bread) was followed by a punchy ravioli, stuffed with salt cod, clams and Genovese pesto, and the “catch of the day”, sea bass with artichokes, lemon and capers, all washed down with the region’s distinctive dry, tingly white. I let pudding go, thinking of the tart that I had scoffed poolside earlier.

But if you thought that was it on the cake front, think again. The breakfast table was laden with five cakes, from custard-filled doughnuts to buttery brioche, ricotta tart and rice cake. I think there might have been some muesli, too.

AMBIENCE L’Andana hotel is a grand pink building that was once the former hunting lodge of Leopold II of Tuscany. The location alone creates more than enough wellbeing for most. The grounds stretch over 500 hectares, offering distant views of the sea. As well as olive groves, pine-covered hills, vineyards (L’Andana produces its own wine), there are clipped lawns, rose beds and herbaceous borders.

EXPERIENCE Quietly funky and luxurious country house. My Mini Ritual wrap and treatment massage lasted nearly two blissful hours.

FOOD From starters such as spelt risotto with peas and borage; taccole, artichokes and tuna bottarga; to mains such as old-fashioned braised beef, celery and salsify; poached octopus, mussels and red wine-braised sausage.

IN CROWD Hip weekending couples in their early thirties to Gucci loafer-wearing Romans with their pedigree dogs.

WALLET WATCH From the Eye Lift (€65, £44) to the Holistic Back, Face and Scalp Massage with Hot Stones (€260, £175). Tartlets and cakes that accompany the treatments cost from €7.

NEED TO KNOW L’Andana Hotel and Spa, Tenuta La Badi-ola, Castiglione della Pescaia, Tuscany, Italy; phone 00 39 0564 944800, www.andana.it . The tour operator Scott Dunn offers seven nights at L’Andana from £1,405 per person. This includes return British Airways flights to Pisa, seven-day car hire and B&B based on two adults sharing a superior room. For further information and details, call 020-8682 5080; www.scott dunn.co.uk .

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